Sunday Times 2
There is an intruder in the House
View(s):By B. Anton Jeyanathan
At a time when there was a “big match fever” in Colombo, especially over the popular Royal Thomian encounter, a famous Royal College past student, Dinesh Gunawardena, MP, was in the limelight and took the shine off the big match by being debarred from parliament following the successful passage of a motion to keep him out of parliament for a week.
Mr. Prins Gunasekera, Opposition MP
There were allegations by Joint Opposition members that policemen were brought into the Well of parliament, claiming that it had not happened in the past. On reading this claim, I recollected an earlier occasion – in 1966 – where policemen were brought into Parliament to evict a member after the Speaker ordered that he be removed from the House for his purported unparliamentary behaviour.
At the time, the parliament building was in Fort, opposite the Galle Face green. It now houses the President’s office. I was one of the few officers in mufti who was seated as a spectator in the gallery. On this particular day there was a heated argument between the opposition members and the government. Mr. Prins Gunasekera, a member of parliament, who was a member of the opposition, was the most vociferous attacker of the government over some decision by the government. If my memory serves me right, the Prime Minister was the late Dudley Senanayake and the Speaker was the late Albert Peiris. Readers may pardon me if the names of the parliamentarians, the Prime Minister and the Speaker may not be accurate as I am relying on my memory and not on any notes.
When Prins Gunasekera kept on heckling and disturbing the parliamentary proceedings, the MP’s of the government heckled him and the House was in utter chaos. The Speaker who was there to maintain decorum and discipline, called upon Prins Gunasekera and the other members of Parliament to behave in an orderly manner so that the parliamentary proceedings could be continued without further disturbance. Prins Gunasekera did not relent but kept on shouting and disturbing the House, when a member of the government requested the Speaker to name Prins Gunasekera and evict him from parliament. The Speaker having heard the proposal by the member of the government called upon Mr. Gunasekera to refrain from any other disturbance if not, he would have no alternative but to name him and order him to be evicted from Parliament. As Prins Gunasekera did not relent, the government members shouted for him to be evicted from parliament and the Speaker named Mr. Gunasekera and ordered that he be evicted from parliament. On this order the opposition members protested in a loud voice and surrounded Prins Gunasekera to protect him from being evicted. The Speaker made the order for the sergeant-at-arms to evict Mr. Gunasekera from the Chamber. The sergeant-at-arms and his assistants went up to the row of seats where Prins Gunasekera was being scrummed by the other members of parliament, one of them I recollect was the late Stanley Tillekeratne. The seating arrangements were such that the MPs had to walk through the space between the two rows to find their seats and occupy them. Since the other MPs were surrounding him and protecting him, the sergeant-at-arms and his assistants could not reach Prins Gunasekera to evict him.
On realising that the sergeant-at-arms and the others were unable to reach up to the seat of Prins Gunasekera, the Speaker ordered the police to come in and take Prins Gunasekera out of the house by force. On this order in walked the late A. C. Gafoor with a posse of men. I believe Mr. Gafoor who was known as “Gaffy” to us, was a giant of a man who was feared by all and sundry who dared to come out on to the street for protests, demonstrations etc. The Police Department made use of Gaffy as a showpiece whenever there were any street protests. Gaffy would come with a posse of policemen, leading them and facing any trouble makers. His presence alone made the protestors run away. Gaffy walked into the Chambers, came up to the row of seats where Prins Gunasekera was being scrummed by the other parliamentarians and tried to reach him and take him out in a dignified manner, but it was not possible. As such, he had to jump over the members of parliament and some seats and lift Prins Gunasekera out of the row of seats and with the help of others carry him out of the Chambers and if I recollect correctly, he was dumped outside near the basin of the Beira, outside the parliament.
Gaffy had a permanent wound on one of his legs which was incurable and had a permanent bandage over the wound. Because of this he was used to wearing a pair of moccasins. When Gaffy walked in he was wearing the same pair of moccasins and in the process of jumping and lifting Prins Gunasekera, one of moccasins got entangled between the row of chairs and Gaffy had to take Mr. Gunasekera out of the Chamber leaving one moccasin behind in the Chamber. Having evicted Prins Gunasekera from the parliamentary premises, he was coming to retrieve his shoe which was in the parliament Chamber. After Prins Gunasekera was evicted, parliament continued their day’s business. Gaffy not realising that the parliament session was on, walked casually into the Chamber to retrieve his shoe. On seeing Gaffy coming into the Chamber Stanley Tillekeratne who was one of those protecting Prins Gunasekera from being evicted shouted “Speaker Sir, there is an intruder in the House”. The Speaker took no action, perhaps pretending that he did not hear what Mr. Tillekeratne said. In the meantime Gaffy had retrieved his shoe and walked out of the Chamber.
The police coming into the Chamber of parliament and evicting Dinesh Gunawardena, was perhaps not the first time, as this has happened earlier too as narrated above.
(The writer was a DIG of the Sri Lanka police.)